Yay! I loved seeing all of the boy rooms in our Boy-Mom Madness kick-off yesterday. Today it’s all about “Oh-Boy-Organization”.
I wish I could say I was one of those uber organized moms. I do my best, but I mean, really, come on, IT IS NEVER ENDING! Are you with me?
Oh and…what’s that? You are hosting a baby shower next weekend and your playroom looks like the hot-mess-express?
Tell me that’s just not me?!?!
Well whether you have a kiddo mess, a husband mess or maybe you are just messy, today I am going to show a quick way to conceal the clutter.
This is the normal state of our playroom.
This room is right off of our main living area- the kitchen and eat in dining room and it is 100% boy-mom approved. We “invented” this extra square footage last spring by turning an under used sunroom into a mudroom/playroom. It was hands down the best money we have ever spent on our home.
We basically live in this area of our house.
And it shows.
When it comes to corralling the clutter, that Ikea Expedit shelf is a total lifesaver. It holds all the toys and books. But while it is super functional, let’s be honest, it ain’t pretty!
Nothing a painters drop cloth (I used this one for $8 from Home Depot) and velcro can’t fix! The drop cloth is the PERFECT size to cover an Ikea Expedit shelf!
Ahhhhhh… that’s better.
Honestly, I painted this drop cloth for a previous DIY project years ago. As I was trying to figure out some potential fabric to cover the shelf I remembered I had this. BOOM- it was literally a perfect fit as if I had made it for this exact purpose. The best part is that it literally takes 30 seconds to put it up.
The velcro allows me to stick it on easily whenever needed. I think a cute shower curtain would work great and even some cheapo burlap would work. Really anything is better than the hodge podge on the shelf, right?
Next, the train table. All I did was drape a table cloth over it and corral some chairs around it. Instant conversation area and perfect for adult entertaining. When you live in a small house, it’s imperative to use your space to the fullest! Now this play room is ready for the big kids! 🙂
Here is a shot of how it would look without the fabric concealers. Sneaky, heh?
As I’m writing this post, I’m thinking this is less of an organizing post and more of a suggestion on how to just hide the mess. Ha ha ha ha.
Either way, it looks better to me!
If you are looking for more organization ideas, click on the links below. I can’t wait to check them out, I need all of the help I can get. 🙂
Queen Bee,
Heather
This is brilliant! Great idea, Heather!
~Abby =)
Great tip–we all need to just "hide the mess" sometimes!!
Would have never guessed those were the same spaces! Great hide job! (((we have the Ikea shelf, too …)))
This is awesome! Seriously clever. By the way your messy playroom looks like ours in its cleanest state. Haha! It's always a disaster. Love your idea for concealing it!
-Erin Spain
Wow!! That is brilliant! That would make stuff and fluff before company arrives a breeze!
Good idea. I try to keep 99% of the kid stuff in our tv room and when company comes over, I close the door. Or open it if there are extra kids. We clean it up to vacuum but my son is in the stage where if there's a bucket/basket/box of toys with even just one toy in it, he dumps it out. Legos, Duplos, books, stuffed animals, random toys… you name it! But I do like the idea of concealing…. especially for those quick clean up moments before company comes over!!